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Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Merciful Tuesdays!

I am throwing myself on Tuesday's mercy because I just cannot handle another day like yesterday! Tuesday, be gentle with me!

Anyway, so yesterday, right? Yesterday I did manage to get the grocery shopping done and spend a lot less than in weeks past because a big pot of (cheap) chili is on the menu and I found roasting chickens on sale at 50% off. So I bought two. The expiration date was yesterday so I just threw one in the freezer and am boiling the tar out of the other today. I'm trying a recipe I found on one of my favorite blogs to stalk. Don't tell, but it's here. I've been reading it faithfully for probably a year now but I don't leave comments. Isn't that just like a stalker? I'm just too intimidated to comment. I'm still a little in awe. But she cooks a lot and is kind enough to share recipes and I'm trying her chicken noodle soup tonight and reserving a few cups of meat for Chicken and Corn Chowder on Thursday. We're eating soupy things all week! It's the weather.

I also went to L.L. Bean to do some recognizance work for Operation Backpack Replacement. The salespeople were all very attentive, and not in that patronizing, I'm-helping-you-but-only-cause-I-have-to-we-all-know-this-is-so-beneath-me kind of way. We are indeed getting a free replacement backpack, the problem is they no longer stock that particular backpack anymore. You can't even order it. So Redheaded Snippet has to pick out a new one which means I have to take her to the store to either buy one in the store or, more likely, order one from the catalog because there aren't many packs left in the store and if you order from the catalog at the store, it gets shipped to your house for free. I just gotta find a time when I can take her over there. After school? No, there's a game. After the game? No, we have to eat dinner. After dinner? No, there's homework. Tomorrow? Tomorrow is WEDNESDAY, most vile and heinous of days! Thursday is another game so it's looking like we're going to have to spend our free day off from school trolling the aisles at L.L. Bean!

Flannel Report. That just sounds ridiculous. As it should. But here it is anyway: beds are only partially flanneled. I ran out of steam after dealing with the histrionics of a boy right out of the pages of Calvin and Hobbes all day (more on that later) and decided to wait on the flanneling. But then I was overtaken by the desire to cocoon my tired and aching body in the warm softness of flannel so I found myself rummaging through the stored linens and changing the sheets at 11:30 last night! I was just going to put the fitted sheet and a set of pillowcases on and save the rest for today. But that looked so cozy, I just had to do more. I had forgotten how much heavier the flannel duvet is. It took FOREVER! But it was soooooooooo worth it! I woke up once in the night and once this morning to find myself snuggling and smiling in sleepy, flannely glee. I'm having a very hard time concentrating right now, knowing the flannel is just a floor above me, still unmade, all to myself...But, no! I must finish Man-Cub's bed and get Redheaded Snippet's done today. That girl. I stripped her bed for her last week but stopped short of remaking it, figuring a 13-year-old girl is perfectly capable of making her own bed without her mother doing it for her. I even put the linens in a neat pile on her chair. Now the linens are in a blob on the floor and she's been sleeping directly on the mattress pad all week! Eeeeeeewwwwwwww! Sound familiar, Dharma? I may have to remake that bed after all...

Dinner last night was the highlight of my day. Chili with Corn Pudding. See? I made that corn pudding after all! No one else ate it but me, but that's just fine! More for me to love! Chili has got to be one of the best meals ever. It's cheap, easy and oh so yummy! I make it in the thermowell

which is that funny-looking thing on the back right where a burner should be

You don't have to have a Chambers to make great chili, though it does make it worlds easier. I just browned the meat with some garlic powder in the thermowell kettle on the stove top, threw in some canned diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and a chili spice kit, lowered the kettle in the preheated well, put the cover on, then turned the gas off after 20 minutes and left the house to take Redheaded Snippet to a hockey game at the high school. 40 minutes later I added the beans and it was ready to be dished up about 10 minutes after that! The Corn Pudding was actually a little more involved and all it required was some mixing and baking.

Well, I think I've blogged myself silly. I've gotten all kinds of tired and I'm actually starting to seriously consider that nap. Actually, what I may do is snuggle up in bed and tackle my assignment for Bible Study tonight. So I won't actually be napping, but I will be enjoying the blessings of the flannel.

Okay, I will try very hard not to mention flannel again. But I am off to lie in it! Hee!